325,000 Disabled

The documentary "Poison DUst: A Close Look at the Dangers of Radioactive Depleted Uranium Weapons to Innocent Civilians and Our Own Troops" tells the story in graphic detail. It's available on DVD. US military use of radioactive weapons goes back decades. The US military now admits that it deliberately radiated its own soldiers, known as "Atomic Veterans," during the Cold War. The US has used radioactive weapons on peoples in not only Iraq, but the Marshall Islands, Vieques, Puerto Rico, Maehyang-ri, South Korea, and Yugoslavia. The US has caused unspeakable tragedy in this way. Of course, DU is still used today. My son is in the Army, stationed in Korea, and works on Army vehicles. I am relatively sure he has been exposed to DU, but when I asked him what the Army tells the soldiers, he says they are told it is not a major concern. That is a lie, IMO. If the military has no regard for the health and safety of its own, then it comes as no surprise that the death and destruction of human lives of our so-called enemies is even of less concern.

About 300 tons of DU were dispersed over Iraq in 1991. Yet the US Department of Defense (DoD) has found little health risk to soldiers who inhaled DU and continues to claim exposure to DU is safe. Nearly 580,000 soldiers were deployed in the war. 294 soldiers died and 400 were wounded or became ill. As of year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability, and over 11,000 have died. Obviously something serious happened to the health of these men and women who served in the Gulf.

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So what will be the health situation of those hundreds of thousands of US military who are serving in Iraq now? Has the DU in Iraq disappeared since 1991?

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